Separate Work and Personal Email and Files

For UW faculty and staff

The University of Washington is subject to the Washington State Public Records Act, which defines the public's right to access "public records." The law defines "public records" to include any record containing information relating to the conduct or functions of the University, and prepared, owned, used, or retained by the University, regardless of physical form or characteristics. This may include the records on UW computers (central, departmental, or desktop), as well as other ISP email systems. The Act allows members of the public to submit a public records request to the UW, which must then provide the requested records unless one of the exemptions listed in the Act applies.

As stated above, the determination of whether a specific record is subject to the Public Records Act depends on the facts pertaining to the particular record, not where it is stored. Please note the implications of this with respect to your use of other email systems.

UW employees who are also UW students or alumni may use the UW student and alumni systems for personal use, within the acceptable use guidelines for those systems. However, saving email on these systems does not prevent it from being considered to be a public record. Records that are "public records" as defined above are subject to the Public Records Act even when they are stored on student or alumni designated systems.

As an employee of the UW, it is a good idea to keep a clear separation between your work- and official-UW-related records and your personal materials. The following guidelines may be of assistance in maintaining such a separation:

Place student Web pages on the students.washington.edu Web server.
Separate student email from work email by saving student email in folders separate from those used for work records.
Keep alumni Web pages and email separately on the MyUW.net email and Web servers.